Ph.D.'s were cheap and
plentiful and not afraid of bad smells. There the business throve
amazingly, and by 1914 the Germans were manufacturing more than
three-fourths of all the coal-tar products of the world and supplying
material for most of the rest. The British cursed the universities for
thus imperiling the nation through their narrowness and neglect; but
this accusation, though natural, was not altogether fair, for at least
half the blame should go to the British dyer, who did not care where his
colors came from, so long as they were cheap. When finally the
universities did turn over a new leaf and began to educate chemists, the
manufacturers would not employ them. Before the war six English
factories producing dyestuffs employed only 35 chemists altogether,
while one German color works, the Hoechster Farbwerke, employed 307
expert chemists and 74 technologists.

This firm united with the six other leading dye companies of Germany on
January 1, 1916, to form a trust to last for fifty years. During this
time they will maintain uniform prices and uniform wage scales and hours
of labor, and exchange patents and secrets. They will divide the foreign
business _pro rata_ and share the profits. The German chemical works
made big profits during the war, mostly from munitions and medicines,
and will be, through this new combination, in a stronger position than
ever to push the export trade.

As a consequence of letting the dye business get away from her, England
found herself in a fix when war broke out. She did not have dyes for her
uniforms and flags, and she did not have drugs for her wounded. She
could not take advantage of the blockade to capture the German trade in
Asia and South America, because she could not color her textiles. A blue
cotton dyestuff that sold before the war at sixty cents a pound, brought
$34 a pound. A bright pink rhodamine formerly quoted at a dollar a pound
jumped to $48. When one keg of dye ordinarily worth $15 was put up at
forced auction sale in 1915 it was knocked down at $1500. The
Highlanders could not get the colors for their kilts until some German
dyes were smuggled into England. The textile industries of Great
Britain, that brought in a billion dollars a year and employed one and a
half million workers, were crippled for lack of dyes. The demand for
high explosives from the front could not be met because these also are
largely coal-tar products. Picric acid is both a dye and an expl